LED lighting systems

gollus

gollus

Member
I am interested in doing some experminentation with LEDs. I am hopeing I can get enough blue LED to offset the color from my Iwasaki ballasts. I am also interested in the possiblity of creating a whole lighting system using LEDs. I have been doing a lot of research, but the problem I am running into is that very few of these companies acctually post the amount of light from the LED, and NONE of them post anything like PAR rating. If anyone has any information pertaining to this I would be extatic. Also I read a post about some company acctually making one of these for sale. But in the post no one posts the name of the company or anywhere to get any acctual facts, only rumors, if anyone could point me to any information on this that would be great. Who knows you might get a DIY guide to building your own LED lighting fixture.
 
gollus

gollus

Member
yea thats kinda what I have in mind, but on a much larger scale. I want the LEDs to be able to replace a need for any acetinic floresents. So as you can imagine I need a LOT of LED light, and for that I need the amount of light the LEDs give off, and Im having difficulty finding that.
 
dreeves

dreeves

Active Member
The LED technology for actual lighting uses is I believe pretty new. I read previously (dont recall where) about a company researching the LED's for entire tank lighting...one thing they did mention was a difficult time finding LED's big enough to accomplish such a thing currently...I am sure time will aid in this problem.
We use LED's on our trailer lights...more expensive, but worth the cost of not having to replace them...judging by their appearance...there will be bigger ones not to long down the road...most cities are also converting their traffic lights to LED's as well...now those are some bright ones!
 
foxthorn

foxthorn

Member
This web site: http://superbrightleds.com/leds.htm
Lists LEDs with associated "mcd" values (thousands of candela ... i.e, candlepower).
Also check out this site: http://dcwi.com/~nybarra/LED.html
This guy talks about how he tried to convert candela to lumens.
Candela and lumens are two different types of measurment. Apparently a rough estimate can be had if you divide the number of lumens by 12.57 you can get the equivalent candelas, candelas times 1000 = mcd.
HTH,
 
gollus

gollus

Member
Hey thanks that is EXACTLY what i was looking for, also for anyone else interested here is a rather long but very informative article on LEDs, http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/NLPI...?id=885&type=2
Its mostly a clearification of most of that LED stuff you might hear, but also talks about LEDs life span, which, im sorry to say, is not as long as i belived. Though they never burn out, the amount of light they give off goes down as time goes by, and this is excellerated by heat. Something very important to know for our hobby I think. I highly suggest reading the article if you are at all interested in LED lighting, it was very good.
 
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